Nanotube Lube Replenishment for Massive Drives

PetManimal writes "Techworld reports that Seagate has just patented something called 'Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording,' which features nanotechnology and could lead to a 1.46TB 2.5-in. drive. The article says 'Storing data properly in extremely small areas requires the magnetic material to be heated during the writing phase, but this causes the lubricant film deposited on top of the magnetized recording layer to evaporate. Seagate's patent resolves this problem by having a reservoir inside the disk casing that contains nanotube-based lubricant. Some of this is periodically pumped out as a vapor and deposited on the surface of the disk, replenishing the evaporated lubricant.'"

Comments

Running out of Lube

[frosty_tsm]

Doesn't this mean that your drive fails when it runs out of lube (and therefore you have to replace the drive)?

I mean, I don't know how many people are going to want to take their hard drives in for the equivalent of an oil change or a fill-up every few months or once a year. We've had cars for 100 years and some car owners still don't understand you have to change the oil every some-odd number of miles. On the other hand, we've had computers for 20 years and some people still think that the computer has a cup holder. (See yesterday's tech support stories discussion).

Replenishing the reservoir

[Penguin Programmer]

So what happens when your reservoir runs out of nanotubes and can no longer replenish the lube in the drive? You have to buy a new one? I mean, I'm guessing they can put enough nanotubes in there to last longer than the other drive components in the common case, but this could still be a problem.

Sounds like it would be great for Seagate, since their drives could actually expire at a set time, but maybe not so great for consumers.